The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-04-08
ORIENTAL SERVANTS.
A Question that Also Troubles Per-
sian Housewives.
The "NowISer'' Has His Good Points But
He Is an UnConscIOnabIe Liar and
Thief-Some Peculiar Gus
toms.

1t is not alone in this country, as
many badgered and worried house
wives are too prone to assume, that
the servant question serves as n con-
slant irritant and reminder of the inn
perfection of every thing mundane.
The servant question, in fact, is n IA
voritc topic and popular problem
nearly everywhere, in the old world rs
much as in the new But if in so far the
Orient resembles the Occident, it rad
ically differs when the servants them
selves are considered. In truth, no
greater contrast could be conceived
than the average Biddy of the American
household-improvident, forward, pert
and irrepresSible, vet withal affection
ate, honest and ndustrious-ofiers to
the regulation servant in oriental
countries.
The most efficient servants in the
East are Greeks. Strange that the de-
scendants of that plucky little nation
which filled the world with glory ever
lasting should now be content to do
mental service for the descendants of
predatory hordes that were not even
mentioned in the pages of history till
long after Greece's glory had departed
Strange that the sons Of that land
which possessed the most refined,
thorough and harmonious culture, and
which knew but one name of barbarism
for every non-Greek, should now in
their debasement be satisfied with the
bread of servants doled out to them by
TR,.4
there is no gainsaying the fact that the
Greek to-day makes n most skillful,
attentive and plant domestic. For his
rectitudc, his faithfulneSs, his trust
worthiness, and other Western charac-
teristics unfortunately not much can be
said, but a good deal about the absence
of those qualities. Yet, as in the king
dom of the blind the one-eyed man is
monarch, so in Turkey the Greek is the
king of servants. The others-Turks,
Armenians, Arnauts. Bulgarians, Abys-
sinians, Arabs, etc. are insufferably
stupid, slow and unwilling to work.
Europeans in Turkey nearly always
employ Greeks. In the large cities OF
Turkey, especially in Constanhnople
and Smyrna, it is largely by the de-
Nious influence they exert through
their compatriots in the service OF
Turkish dignitaries that the Greeks
maintain the prc-cminent position they
there enjoy. And even the most fanat-
ical old-school Turk. who may curse
with bated breath the very existence OF
the giaour, can not get along without
his adroit, smoOth-spoken Greek secre-
taIy. dragoman, pipe-bearer, or b-dy
servant. These Levantine or Bryant
inc Greeks must not be COMPOUNDED
with their cousins Of Greece proper
with whom they have hardly any thing
in common save consanguinity and
language. While the real Greeks have
during the past sixty years, repeatedly
proved to the world that valor anC
love of independence are not deaC
within them. those Hellenes of Turkey
are above all noted for total lack o
independence and bravery. They ar,
utterly unconscious Of their own deg
radiation, and will readily kiss the hant
that smites them. With an that, il j
curious 20 note that the old names o
Greek history revive in those degen
crate scions of mongrel blood Man,
newer Of s.oo5 in COnstautinOpi